Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Shares Bought by Copperwynd Financial LLC

Copperwynd Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 30.9% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,511 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 593 shares during the period. Copperwynd Financial LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $830,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Planning grew its position in Accenture by 4.7% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 234,731 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $71,220,000 after acquiring an additional 10,559 shares during the period. Annandale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Accenture during the 2nd quarter worth about $532,000. Ascent Group LLC increased its position in Accenture by 10.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 9,461 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $2,871,000 after purchasing an additional 907 shares in the last quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 1.2% in the second quarter. MidWestOne Financial Group Inc. now owns 4,784 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $1,452,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Kathmere Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Accenture by 74.8% during the second quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 2,597 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $788,000 after buying an additional 1,111 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Price Performance

Accenture stock opened at $349.70 on Friday. Accenture plc has a 12-month low of $278.69 and a 12-month high of $387.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $219.15 billion, a PE ratio of 32.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $333.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $320.81.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.37 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 27.48% and a net margin of 10.79%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 11.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is a positive change from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.25%.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ACN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Accenture from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $370.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Piper Sandler Companies restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $329.00 target price on shares of Accenture in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Accenture from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $382.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $364.64.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total transaction of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at $3,652,661.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.82, for a total transaction of $1,649,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,989 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,964,751.98. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 3,776 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.05, for a total value of $1,166,972.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,652,661.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,421 shares of company stock valued at $6,912,635 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

About Accenture

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.